Australia offers $95k reward for bombers of Israeli consulate

Incentive may encourage suspects of 1982 bombings of the Israeli Consulate and the Hakoah Club to turn on each other, police commander says.

Police in Australia say they now have four primary suspects in the 1982 bombings of the Israeli Consulate and the Hakoah Club.

At a news conference in Sydney Thursday, Detective Chief Superintendent Wayne Gordon, the commander of the terrorism investigation squad, said he hoped the money, the equivalent of $95,000 in U.S. dollars, would entice the public or the alleged perpetrators to come forward.

The incentive may encourage the suspects to turn on each other, he added. ”That would be a matter for their conscience.”

The bombings occurred on December 23, 1982, at the Israeli Consulate in Sydney and in a car parked underneath the Hakoah Club, a Jewish social and sports club. Two people were injured at the consulate.

The cold case was reopened last year, involving local and federal police as well as Australia’s spy agency. ”We live here,” Gordon said. “We don’t want to live in fear.”